The costs of popular drugs—even generics—in dermatology are soaring, leaving patients scrambling for coverage or financial assistance and dermatologists spending precious hours on prior authorizations, drug appeals and reviews. In this first of a five-part series, experts and patients help define the problem.

Primary care physicians concerned about rising drug costs may want to watch efforts in California and other states to cap copayments, and monitor discussions about allowing the federal government to negotiate prices with drug makers or about setting medication prices based on their value to patients.

FDA’s approval of Vertex Pharmaceutical’s groundbreaking lumacaftor/ivacaftor (Orkambi) for cystic fibrosis (CF) is the first drug to treat the underlying cause of CF in people ages 12 and older with two copies of the F508del mutation.